How to Cook Up an Awesome DeckRecipes by 31 Experts

Everything starts with the idea.— Aaron Friedman.

Ask yourself, “What am I going to talk about?” and “Who is my audience?” — Phil Fraser.

Ensure the audience walks away with something actionable, something they can take back to the office. — Stacey MacNaught.

Tweet this

Creating a great, show-stopping presentation is no easy task.— Ned Poulter.

Define a learning outcome, the core message you want people to get.— Nick Garner.

Tweet this

How can You do it?We asked 31 speakers and digital marketing experts

Presentation Creation

SuccessYou Research Conception Structured Content

Designing the Deck

Practicing the Speech

1. Conducting Research

Brad Geddes

Brian Downard

Carolyn Jones

Nichola Stott

Start with proper planning

What is the style of the session: workshop, how-to, educational, high-level, problem-solving?

What is the length of time you have to speak?

What are the other presenters going to speak about? (Either avoid overlap or have a nice segue from one speaker to another.)

Know your audienceAudience size (determines how personal your presentation style needs to be)

Audience education level based on subject

Audience corporate level (practitioners, decision makers, CMOs, etc.)

Think over about outcomesThe audience outcome (What should they do with the information?)

Business outcomes (What do I want out of it?)

Based on the Step-by-Step Research you can decide how the session needs to be laid out from introducing your-self, opening statement, supporting materials and then conclusion. — Brad Geddes.

5 More Insights to Rock

Research other popular presentations that have a high share count online. (Topsy is a great tool for this.) — Brian Downard.

#1

Tweet this

Find slides, videos or write-ups of past talks to get an idea of what has been presented before and what has been well-received. — Carolyn Jones.

#2

Have the main point of your speech written down in one sentence. — Carolyn Jones.

#3

Tweet this

Define your business targets — download the slides, visit any further information or tools referenced.— Nichola Stott.

#4

Let the idea sit in your head for a few days. Consider the audience, different approaches, etc., until something gels. Then move to bullet points.— Brad Geddes.

#5

2. Defining Conception

Miles Burke

Ben Austin

Laura Crimmons

Ned Poulter

Neil Eneix

Jono Alderson

Kent Lewis

Stephen Kenwright

Lyena Solomon

Ross Simmonds

Justin McGill

Tony Dimmoсk

Without a clear outline it can be tricky. Here are a few reasons why…

Jumping straight into PowerPoint will quite often mean large structural changes to the ordering of the deck, right up until the last minute!

— Jono Alderson.

#1

The hardest bit is a message that ties everything together…individual slides are easy because it’s just filling in time.

— Stephen Kenwright.

#2

11 Amazing Tips to Empower Your Presentation

Storytelling is a key point of your presentation.— Miles Burke.

#1

Tweet this

Structure your presentation for a story (setup, conflict and resolution). — Laura Crimmons.

#2

Tweet this

Set-up (introduction) prepares listeners to hear the story.— Lyena Solomon.

#3

Build the presentation around that key takeaway with a story line. — Neil Eneix.

#4

Tweet this

Create a mind-map of all the topics and elements you intend to include.— Tony Dimmock.

#5

A slideshow with great info but no story will limit the decks ability to resonate with people and be shared on a consistent basis.

— Ross Simmonds.

#6

Removal of “fluff” – anything and everything that sounds like “waffle” is removed.— Tony Dimmock.

#7

Use the presentation for support, rather than a crutch.— Kent Lewis.

#8

Tweet this

Use a real example of someone or a company that’s done a great job.— Mel Carson.

#9

Tweet this

Look for supporting data that proves the point. This could be case studies, industry reports, Analytics dashboards, test results, etc.

#10

— Leyna Solomon.

Try and find imagery that supports each slide or main point. — Justin McGill.

#11

3. Moving to Structured Content

Ali White

Nichola Stott

Brian Downard

Illiy Vjestica

Micah Fisher-Kirshner

Matthew Barby

Matt Beswick

Carolyn Jones

Lucasz Zelezny

Simon Penson

Ross Simmonds

David Bain

Stacey MacNaught

Visualizing Ideas

Moving to a Structured Flow

Visualizing Ideas

Moving to a Structured Flow

Organize things visually to get an idea of how things are going to flow.

— Carolyn Jones.

Draw out your ideas on sticky notes and post them on the wall.— Illiy Vjestica.

I use a Post-it note for each slide. I move them around, remove some, add new ones (a process that typically takes hours!).

— Stacey MacNaught.

Tweet this

I always sketch out some rough ideas and concepts on a large A3 sheet to begin with. — Matthew Barby.

Creating the basic structure can be done by simply scribbling them on a piece of paper and laying them out in order, one point per sheet.

— Simon Penson.

Visualizing Ideas

Moving to a Structured Flow

Wireframe structure of the deck — just  white backgrounds and black text — to get an initial version of the slides in place.

— Matt Beswick.

Work schematically, writing the key message on each slide. — Simon Penson.

Start with 5-to-6 overall concepts. Structure things and decide on the 3 concepts that work together the best

— Matt Beswick.

List the main points, 3 or 4 — they become the sections of the presentation. Break these down further by listing 6 or 7 bullet points for each section of the deck.

— David Bain.

Write bullet points. Based on bullet points, prepare a Table of Content.

— Lucasz Zelezny.

Tweet this

Your key points require multiple steps of review from colleagues and friends to make sure the points you’re trying to make come across well.

— Micah Fisher-Kirshner.

4. Designing a Deck

Ali White

Micah Fisher-Kirshner

Simon Penson

Brian Downard

Geno Prussakov

Kent Lewis

I prefer to default to 1 background image and no more than 3 bullet points in a callout box.

— Kent Lewis.

Make sure you use a high enough resolution for all your images, charts and other supporting materials. — Ali White.

5 more designing tips to stay ahead of others!

Each topic/concept in a presentation may have 1-5 slides. — Kent Lewis.

#1

Keep ideas short and easy to understand. — Brian Downard.

#2

Arrange for effective presentation via animation and emphasis.— Geno Prussakov.

#3

Try to keep things as visual as possible. — Matthew Barby.

#4

Most people forget the value of great design, it captures attention and keeps it. — Brian Downard.

#5

Use a general rule of one text-based slide, followed by one image based slide, followed by something that has subtle humor within it.— Matthew Barby.

Tweet this

Run through your slides with a timer.— Ali White.

Tweet this

Spot-check various grammar, spelling and formatting issues, and make sure your information is matching up to how you plan to speak about it.

— Micah Fisher-Kirshner.

Written content should use a lot formatting tricks to hold a user’s attention — once, a friend of mine had a client tell him that his infographic couldn’t use capital letters as their customers “didn’t use them.”

— Peter Campbell.

5. Practicing your speech

Simon Penson

Phil Fraser

Peter Campbell

Ben Austin

Justin McGill

Simply practice the finalized deck 3 or 4 times in the 10 days before the event.— Simon Penson.

My practice normally entails standing in the bedroom delivering the speech to the dog and my wife!— Phil Fraser.

Write a script, and rehearse like crazy. — Peter Campbell.

Use a video to record yourself practicing so you can see how you’re doing.

— Justin McGill.

Tweet this

Once I’m happy with my slides, I’ll do a practice run in front of the office — my toughest critics! — Ben Austin.

Looking for more information?

Follow our Experts on Twitter to Learn More!

Lukasz Zelezny

Matthew Barby

David Bain

Jono Alderson

Stephen Kenwright

Brad Geddes

@LukaszZelezny

@matthewbarby

@DavidBain

@jonoalderson

@stekenwright

@bgtheory

Matt Beswick

Pete Campbell

Simon Penson

Aaron Friedman

Ali White

Nichola Stott

@mattbeswick

@petecampbell

@simonpenson

@AaronFriedman

@AlistairWhite

@NicholaStott

Carolyn Jones

Brian Downard

Miles Burke

Neil Eneix

Stacey MacNaught

Ross Simmonds

@carolynlyn

@pocketyourshop

@milesb

@neileneix

@staceycav

@TheCoolestCool

Kent Lewis

Tony Dimmock

Justin McGill

Illiy Vjestica

Lyena Solomon

Ned Poulter

@kentjlewis

@Tony_DWM

@Jus10McGill

@illiyadesigns

@lyena

@NedPoulter

Nick Garner

Ben Austin

Michael Reynolds Mel Carson@nickgarner

@absolutelyben

@michaelreynolds @MelCarson

Laura Crimmons Geno Prussakov@lauracrimmons @ePrussakov

Also don’t forget to checkout our SEMrush Blog to become a digital

marketing Ninja!